Do it Yourself, IKEA Style

Last weekend was our annual trip to IKEA waaaaay out in Barkarby. Doesn't mean much to many of you, but basically it may as well be Ukraine if you don't have a car. Which we don't. Not that I want one, but for trips like these, it would be sooo nice. [our trip back home this time was, thankfully, in the backseat of PS and KS' lovely automobile - tack för det!]

Anyways, we were in desperate need of winter-izing our apartment. Around here, cars must be winterized with chain tires, boats must be winterized too. And yes, apartments as well - especially in a place with such harsh winters.

Our winterizing items: rug, curtains, candle sticks, and a shoe rack (see above) for our soggy, snow covered boots. And yes, I put our new shoe rack together myself. My first construction of an IKEA item! I was just a little bit proud... and how good does it look in our lovely little hallway?

Topp Loppet i Hagaparken

Last Saturday Team Cheetah DOMINATED

Team Cheetah at its finest (and most ferocious)

Loppet = the running race

And that is what Cheetah's do best - run fast. Hence the name of our team. And we lived up to that name. 

5 kilometers in the beautiful Hagaparken, just north of central Stockholm, through forests and along lakes. The sun was bright and the weather, perfect. Indian summer at its finest. Bands played along the way, accompanied by Brazilian dancers and go-go dancers in a disco tent tunnel. So much energy along the way! I finished in 23:27, and with that, have retired from races for the remainder of 2011. Now the months of hibernation approach, but I'm not ready to hang up my sneakers yet... 

Visiting Malmö

We spent last weekend in Malmö with Niks mormor & morfar.

They were so sweet,

welcoming us into their home,

preparing incredible meals for us,

and telling us stories, old and new.

me turning with the TT

We visited the city for a few hours on Saturday afternoon

and saw the sites, including the

 Turning Torso, tallest building in Sweden

standing at 54 stories,

and full of apartments

Nik with his mormor & morfar

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend, despite the fact that I only understood about half of the conversation... still, I'm making progress every day!